Customer Reviews

Mrs. Mike: The Story Of Katherine Mary Flannigan

5 star:		(161)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I'm not the first woman who claims that this is the book that made her fall in love with reading. I came across it in my mother's bookshelf maybe 50 yrs ago, when I was about 11, and I don't believe anyone saw me for the next few days as I plowed my way through it.
Mrs. Mike is the love story of Katherine Mary, a young Irish girl from Boston, and Sergeant Mike of the Canadian Mounties, under whose supervision falls all of the great Canadian wilderness. Katherine Mary comes from a world of privilege and comfort. When she moves with her husband to the North Pole region, let's say it took a bit of adjustment. It's a romance, an adventure, a coming-of-age, a tragedy, and a history. Give it to your niece or daughter or granddaughter. Give it to your sister, your friend, your neighbor. I guarantee, they'll all love it.

Like most other reviewers, I first read this book as a 13-year-old, 30 years ago. I laughed, I cried, I fell in love with Sgt. Mike Flannigan. Many years later, I was lucky enough to receive a first edition copy from my husband's family and it remains a treasure in my personal library. This book made a lifetime impression on me as a young girl to love and respect nature and native folklore, as well as to find a mate who is also my best friend! Highly recommended!

I first read this book 30 years ago, at the age of 10. Although I mentioned it to agemates throughout the years, no one else had read it. I recommended it highly, but my compatriots of the time hadn't a great deal of interest in reading.

Imagine my surprise when I mentioned to a family friend 30 years older than me that it was my favorite book of all time, and she launched into a very accurate synopsis of it! She too had read it as a young girl and had thoroughly enjoyed it. I had spent so much time thinking I was the only one who had ever read it, it almost seemed like a private gift to me, but one which I had wanted to share with someone else for so long!

I was so pleased to read the positive reviews by other readers. Now I know I am not the only person who was so very touched by this story that I have reread it at least often enough to know by heart whole passages!

This young girl overcomes whatever life has to throw at her. She was--and still is my ideal. I first read this book when I was about 10 and re-read it every year or so. My original book was recently lost during a move and I now have to have another. As I read, I became this young girl and seemed to experience her love, heartache, and adventure. It is difficult to read when you are crying so hard you can't see the page. I have read this so often that I now start crying pages before I should. This is a life-learning book that should be required reading in middle school or even high school. Normally, I like books, I cherish some books but this book will always be my favorite love. I wanted to be Katherine Mary Flannigan. I only have 1 daughter and her name is Kathryn.

My friend read this book a couple weeks ago because our Language Arts teacher recommended it to her and if a teacher recomends it she has to read it because she's kind of teacher's pet. Anyways she told me that I absolutely had to read it. It looked really corny and boring- I mean come on I'm thirteen!- so I thought of every possible reason to not have yet started it. But I was really bored one day and just picked it up and started to read... and read... and read... and read... and- you get the point. I read until I finished. I stayed up until four in the morning on school nights for three days!!! Unlike most people that wrote a review I just read this book about a week ago and now am trying to get my mom to read it also. I love horror. Absolutely love it. R.L. Stine is my role model okay? Well this book was definitly a change. I cried for over two hours the night I finished it- my pillow was soaked- then I cried the next day talking about it to my friend. This is my favorite book of all time but I don't understand whether or not this is a true story because in the front it says that the story is completely fictional but in About The Author it says that Katherine Mary Flannigan helped to so I really just don't understand! Is it true or not!?!

I was given this book my mother as a teenager and just loved it. Although I haven't read it in years, I noticed it at bookstore recently and wondered yet again what happened to Katherine Mary? Well, I do research as part of my job, and decided to search the net and here's what I found:

Katherine Mary wrote her own book, published in 1951, called "The Faith of Mrs. Kelleen" It's a novelized version of her Irish great-aunt Honora Kelleen's story about trying to prove the innocence of her son. It's available used on Amazon. If you are willing to buy the archived NY Times review, as I did, you will see a pen-and-ink drawing of Katherine Mary, then approx. 61, that accompanies the review.

Also, through the NY Times archives (and also for money) I found a short obit released by the Canadian Press. According to the obit, she died on August 9, 1954 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where she was visiting friends and relatives. At that time, she was living in Vancouver. She also evidently remarried, since the obit called her Mrs. John P. Knox, and referred to Sgt. Mike as the man she was first married to, and that she met the Freedmans as a widow. For such a short obit, there were some jumbled facts...for instance it said she was 54 when she died (if you go by the timeline in Mrs. Mike, she should have been 64) but that she met the Freedmans in her late 50s. It didn't list any children or other relatives nor did it mention her supposed husband. I searched other online newspaper archives, but that's all I found. No doubt, there is more complete obit in a Canadian newspaper somewhere, it's just not available online.

There is a post on this review site that says the authors told a fan that Sgt. Mike died of appendicitis and Katherine Mary moved to California and became a nurse and never remarried. Now, it seems that she did. If Mr. and Mrs. Freedman still monitor these reviews, perhaps they'll let us know if what I found is correct. Maybe sometime I'll put up wikipedia page for the book. I'm sure we won't be the last people to wonder what happened!

I understand from yet another archived review of "Mrs. Mike" that the Freedman's own love story is pretty compelling. I wonder if Mrs. Freedman met Mrs. Flannigan while dealing with her medical problems. Knowing the backstory to Mrs. Mike would be satisfying for all its fans.

I still feel connected to the Mrs. Mike story and to those who brought it alive. What a wonderful book!

Like most fans of this book, I first read it as a teenager. I instantly fell in love with the characters. This is a love story set in the Canadian wilderness. Life is hard, but love is strong. This is a touching and memorable book.

Highly recommended for entertainment reading. And buy an extra copy for your daughter or grandaughter.

Nearly 40 years ago, as a 15 year old girl, I took this book from my parent's bookcase on a cold, Sunday in March. I held out little hope because it was my mother's book, but I was bored and had run out of library books. From the opening page I was enthralled. I read all afternoon and into the evening. The love story of Kathy and Mike appealed to my young, romantic heart. But as I moved into the middle of the book, I missed the romance and found it less exciting. Their married life was not as romantic as their courtship. I read it again twenty years later and saw a different book, one about a maturing marriage and the problems it faced. It seemed much more relevant as a 35 year old mother. I read it again a couple years ago and saw even more in the story; it became a much richer novel each time I read it.

This book was a wise purchase by my mother in 1947 for it has continued to live, and grow. As a girl it was a love story, 40 years later it is the portrait of a marriage. I found a copy in a used book, just like my mother's. I will read it again.

Mrs. Mike is a surprisingly contemporary story whose main character is a strong female. I think it was written about 40 years ago, so parts of it are a bit dated (and perhaps politically incorrect by today's standards). However, it is a wonderful, tender love story set against the background of the extreme and brutal climate and geography of the Canadian northwest. It is the story of a young Irish girl from Boston who falls in love with a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman. The young husband, a strong male character, adores his wife and treats her accordingly. The book also depicts Indians (now called First Nation people in Candada) in a wonderful fashion, as well as strong and deep friendships among the women. This book should be required reading for young people, especially in a time when bonds between people are easily shattered and hardship is looked on as something to be avoided at all cost. Our book group loved it and read it based upon the memory of one of our members who read it as a very young woman and always treasured it in her heart.

If I had to name one of my life-long favorite books, Mrs. Mike is at the top of the list. I first read the story when I was in 9th grade. I was quickly swept into the early 1900s and could easily envision the rugged terrain and difficult lifestyle in many of the remote areas of Canada. The experiences tugged at my young heart.

There was a line in the book that has been with me since I first read the book. "His eyes are so blue that you could swim in them." The love story had me laughing and at other times, crying. It was impossible to put it down.

I came across the book a little over twenty years ago after I had married a forester with eyes so blue you could swim in them. Reading it again renewed my love for the book.

Just a few weeks ago, I was telling my friend about this marvelous book, and yesterday she gave me a copy she had tracked down. It still is impossible to put the book down. Once again I feel like I am watching a beloved movie and visiting dear friends. Reading the paperback jacket made me realize for the first time that this story is based on the real lives of Sgt. Mike Flanigan and "Mrs. Mike". This story has endured the test of time with me. Since my husband and I have no daughters, I am getting a copy to share with my nieces. Hopefully, they will find similar enjoyment.